Heynow is correct to say that an auction house like Sothebys would not tolerate employees taking part in regular auctions and possibly bidding against customers.
It is interesting that until that incident gd had no policy on the matter, it shows that the industry is still young and unregulated. And gd was not an oddity either
It has little to do with regulation. Any business of any merit shies from
any appearance of impropriety.
GoDaddy may not have had a policy which was a failing on their part but the employees should still know how their actions would
appear.
But here's the reality. Outsiders know nothing but bidder1, bidder2 etc. We don't know who or any patterns. (Unlike Snapnames/Namejet where you see the same names over and over).
Inside the GoDaddy' wall people will know bidder1=joesmith. They will also know joesmith never bids more than $100 unless it's a color domain. They may know that he never bids on Tuesdays etc. If there was no GoDaddy policy against bidding I doubt there was policy regarding data access - especially to someone who was VP of the aftermarket. The data IS available that is not available outside.
Did Adam use that? I don't know. Do I know he had access to it? Not for sure .. but I presume he did because he obviously has lousy judgment. I won't believe him whatever he says unless he provides a sworn affidavit.
But things go on every day. Front running is rife - do I have proof? No I don't... but when people repeatedly have sales within 48 hrs of receiving a name it's more than just a "good eye".
Federer got found out. King.net/Emil got caught out with the equivalent of shill bidding. Adam Dicker got dung in house auctioning. Chef Patrick got caught up to no good. Everyone knows who Halvarez is. There are reported "sales" that were between business partners. Sales for multiples of thousands that never change whois. There are names that get picked up at Namejet well after expiry and names that appear at aftermarket that suddenly disappear behind Name.com privacy.
Sure, it's all part of the business. it's never getting regulated because no one cares, no one gets hurt and the relative money involved is not worth worrying about.
The auctions themselves are even debatable in their execution.
I'm not sure that it's clear that all GoDaddy's auctions are "with reserve" and that their website doesn't correspond to actual "reserve" as the comments were made on Hybrid Domainers blog. Ever seen bidders appear/disappear etc. Namejet can take the name back a MONTH after you win? Huh? What?
The industry is a farce.. and this is before even talking about traffic arbitrage, traffic scamming and any other number of sordid activities that are performed online by domainer, developers and the government and their sleazy "agencies" and partners.
I'm still amazed that people still think Google is clean...
Domaining is like the Tour De France. Until we get Tyler Hamilton, David Millars, Floyd Landis' of the world opening up.. it's all hidden under a "code of silence". Here's a clue. Everyone's cheating.